Atomic force microscopy - A powerful tool for industrial applications

The phenomenal success of atomic force microscopy (AFM) in industry is base d on the easy access of samples with practical interest due to the high res olution and high contrast of the method under controllable ambient conditio ns. In our case, the high resolution of AFM is mainly used in the mesoscale range. The high contrast using tapping mode AFM provides information for u nderstanding morphological features of soft organic material such as polyme rs and coatings and also for hard metallic and ceramic systems. But for cor relation of the observed morphology with chemical species the combined use to AFM and transmission electron microscopy often is necessary. As an examp le elucidation of the morphology of thermoplastic polyurethane will be disc ussed in more detail. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.